Occurrence and Concentrations of Toxic VOCs in the Ambient Air of Gumi, an Electronics-Industrial City in Korea

Abstract

This study was carried out to characterize the occurrence and concentrations of a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including aliphatic, aromatic, halogenated, nitrogenous, and carbonyl compounds, in the ambient air of Gumi City, where a large number of electronics industries are found. Two field monitoring campaigns were conducted for a one year period in 2003/2004 and 2010/2011 at several sampling sites in the city, representing industrial, residential and commercial areas. More than 80 individual compounds were determined in this study, and important compounds were then identified according to their abundance, ubiquity and toxicity. The monitoring data revealed toluene, trichloroethylene and acetaldehyde to be the most significant air toxics in the city, and their major sources were mainly industrial activities. On the other hand, there was no clear evidence of an industrial impact on the concentrations of benzene and formaldehyde in the ambient air of the city. Overall, seasonal variations were not as distinct as locational variations in the VOCs concentrations, whereas the within-day variations showed a typical pattern of urban air pollution, i.e., increase in the morning, decrease in the afternoon, and an increase again in the evening. Considerable decreases in the concentrations of VOCs from 2003 to 2011 were observed. The reductions in the ambient concentrations were confirmed further by the Korean PRTR data in industrial emissions within the city. Significant decreases in the concentrations of benzene and acetaldehyde were also noted, whereas formaldehyde appeared to be almost constant between the both campaigns. The decreased trends in the ambient levels were attributed not only to the stricter regulations for VOCs in Korea, but also to the voluntary agreement of major companies to reduce the use of organic solvents. In addition, a site planning project for an eco-friendly industrial complex is believed to play a contributory role in improving the air quality of the city.

Concentrations, health risks, and sources of hazardous air pollutants in Seoul-Incheon, a megacity area in Korea

“…VOCs The VOC measurement method was based on the USEPA TO-17 protocol, which has been used in several field studies (Baek et al 2015(Baek et al , 2020aKim, et al 2020;Seo et al 2014). VOCs were collected twice per day (09:00−12:00 and 14:00−17:00) by drawing air through a stainless-steel tube (0.6 mm x 9 cm, Perkin Elmer, UK) packed with double sorbents: 120 mg and 280 mg of Carbograph-2TD and Carbograph-1TD (40/60 mesh, Markes, UK) in the front and back positions, respectively.…”

Global Research Trends in Health Effects of Volatile Organic Compounds during the Last 16 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Since the occurrence of photochemical smog disaster in Los Angeles (Brown et al, 2007), VOCs have gradually attracted more and more attentions. Under the action of ultraviolet light, VOCs originated from motor vehicle exhaust gases, industrial discharges and fuel combustion products eventually become toxic gases that may cause disease or death (Baek et al, 2015). Na et al (2004) and Alvim et al (2018) found that controlling VOCs emissions can effectively reduce photochemical smog.…”

Characteristic of Atmospheric Btex Concentrations and Their Health Implications in Urban Environment

“…VOCs play a vital role in the formation of ozone (Berezina et al, 2017;Olumayede et al, 2014) and photochemical oxidants (Derstroff et al, 2017). Recently many researchers have focused on the VOCs BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene) due to their toxicity and well correlated with each other (Bretón et al, 2017;Baek et al, 2015;Kerchich et al, 2012;Miller et al, 2010Miller et al, , 2009Hoque et al, 2008).…”